LEADERS from the Catholic and Evangelical church have teamed up in an unprecedented alliance to urge the Scottish Government to drop part of proposed new hate crime laws surrounding criticism of gender identity issues.
Freedom of religion or belief is rightly gaining more attention, but steps to promote this right need to be anchored in international standards, locally relevant and integrated with broader reform efforts.
“Overwhelming majorities of all religious groups (in the USA) say that everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in their personal lives.”
In a letter sent in December, three UN Human Rights Council special rapporteurs asked the government to stop the “intimidation and discriminatory treatment” of Protestants.
In a month since the enactment of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance to regulate interfaith marriages and conversion, 28 people have been booked and at least half of them are Christians, according to police records.
A Russian court has sentenced a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to 7.5 years in prison, a spokesman for the religious denomination said, while in Moscow state investigators opened a new criminal investigation into the group.
Several Canadians in the legal profession have written to Iran’s chief justice denouncing court orders legalizing the seizure of lands owned by members of the Baha’i religious minority.
